Slow Hand is the first Nora Phoenix book I’ve reviewed here, I believe. She’s an MM author, and often writes a lot more than just 2 Ms. She writes Omegaverse as well as regular. She has contemporary and some post-apocalyptic stories too. This one is one of her contemporary stories. It’s the 4th book in a series, but it’s standalone enough that you aren’t going to miss anything if you haven’t read the others. This one is an Mmm, and it deals with some past abuse on the case of the subs. We don’t see any of the abuse, but they do talk about it. It’s also a Daddy book, in a couple of different ways.
So, Master Ford gets a call from his friend, who owns a club. He was contacted by a mutual friend, who is a cop and a Dom. He has rescued 2 young men who had been kept captive by a complete sadist and monster who claimed to be a master, but wasn’t any kind of Dom at all. He was just an abusive monster. Jathan and Thierry have gone through terrible, terrible things. They are fragile, both physically and emotionally. Ford doesn’t know what he’s going to do with them, but he already feels protective about them.
Thierry doesn’t speak. He is able to speak, physically, but it feels like the words get caught in his throat when he tries to talk. They are just trapped. Jathan, on the other hand, has no problem with speaking. He’s angry at the world, and especially Thierry. He has no problem telling everyone how unhappy he is.
I really like Ford. He is endlessly patient, in a situation that he was thrust into, without any kind of rule book. He made mistakes, because who isn’t in that situation, but he also admitted that he made mistakes, apologized and did what he could to make it better. Everyone had a lot of stuff they had to work through. Ford was trying to deal with his changing Dom tendencies and the way that his life is changing, and trying to handle the vastly different needs of Jathan and Thierry. They both have some needs that are the same, but they are also both traumatized by different things, and need different levels of D/s.
Thierry is a sweet, sweet boy. He was really just a light. I was so sad that he had gone through what he did. No one deserves to be treated that way, but when it is just someone who is as precious and innocent as Theirry is, it’s even worse, I think. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he’s a filthy little boy, but he’s also just sweet and innocent, if you know what I mean.
Jathan has such a tough shell. And it’s really no wonder why. I mean, the horrible stuff that has happened really just hurt him so much. But, he’s also got a really good heart, and a marshmallowy center. He has so much love to give, and it’s great to watch his healing journey.
I love how J&T connect and reconnect.
OK, that’s all I have to say about this one. Go check it out! Happy reading!
In Between the Pages 